R.I.P. Marsha Hunt
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Mister Tee
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Re: R.I.P. Marsha Hunt
Just watched the Marsha Hunt documentary (TCM showed it recently), and I come to the question: how is it she was never proposed for the Hersholt Award? She was a longtime Hollywood citizen, she's done barrels ful more than some of the shiny celebs who've been feted with the statue (and didn't need it). It obviously doesn't diminish her life's achievement not to have won it. But it seems such an obvious choice, I can't believe the subject never arose.
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Big Magilla
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Re: R.I.P. Marsha Hunt
Marsha Hunt, at the time of her death, was the oldest living AMPAS member.
I just watched her in the forgotten 1949 noir, Take One False Step, in which she was third billed after William Powell and Shelley Winters but had a more interesting role than Winters who inexplicably was billed above the title even though she disappears after the first twenty minutes of the film. It would be one of Powell's last and one of Hunt's last before her blacklisting.
Her career never really recovered although she would have a long second career as a political activist.
From Wikipedia:
In 1955, after a trip opened her eyes to the issue of hunger in the Third World, Hunt gave speeches throughout the United States, encouraging Americans to join the fight against starvation in the Third World by joining the United Nations Association.
Hunt was a founder of the San Fernando Valley Mayor's Fund for the Homeless and helped to open one of the first homeless shelters in the San Fernando Valley. In 1960, she produced an hour-long telecast about refugee problems that featured stars such as Paul Newman, Jean Simmons, and Bing Crosby. She raised funds for the creation of Rose Cottage, a daycare shelter for homeless children; and served for many years on the advisory board of directors for the San Fernando Valley Community Mental Health Center, a large non-profit, where she advocated for adults and children affected by homelessness and mental illness.
At the time of her death, she was still identified as a political liberal and was very concerned with such issues as global pollution, worldwide poverty, peace in Third World nations, and population growth.
I just watched her in the forgotten 1949 noir, Take One False Step, in which she was third billed after William Powell and Shelley Winters but had a more interesting role than Winters who inexplicably was billed above the title even though she disappears after the first twenty minutes of the film. It would be one of Powell's last and one of Hunt's last before her blacklisting.
Her career never really recovered although she would have a long second career as a political activist.
From Wikipedia:
In 1955, after a trip opened her eyes to the issue of hunger in the Third World, Hunt gave speeches throughout the United States, encouraging Americans to join the fight against starvation in the Third World by joining the United Nations Association.
Hunt was a founder of the San Fernando Valley Mayor's Fund for the Homeless and helped to open one of the first homeless shelters in the San Fernando Valley. In 1960, she produced an hour-long telecast about refugee problems that featured stars such as Paul Newman, Jean Simmons, and Bing Crosby. She raised funds for the creation of Rose Cottage, a daycare shelter for homeless children; and served for many years on the advisory board of directors for the San Fernando Valley Community Mental Health Center, a large non-profit, where she advocated for adults and children affected by homelessness and mental illness.
At the time of her death, she was still identified as a political liberal and was very concerned with such issues as global pollution, worldwide poverty, peace in Third World nations, and population growth.
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Mister Tee
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Re: R.I.P. Marsha Hunt
I wasn't really familiar with her, until, quite recently, Eddie Muller highlighted her on TCM's Noir Alley -- first showing one of her best roles in Raw Deal (a movie worth looking at, if you haven't seen it), then running a short film he made with her about a decade ago. This got me interested enough to look her up on Imdb, and she has a truly interesting biography. She had some solid roles in prime films, till the blacklist undercut her career. What she did afterward, as an activist, is truly remarkable. Godspeed to her.
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Big Magilla
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